Hospital and like beds



1967 l. A. THOMPISON 3,

HOSPITAL AND LIKE BEDS Filed Jan. 4, 1966 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR.

IVOR A. THOMP N BY 9 v A TTORNE Y5 Jan. 31, 1967 l. A. THOMPSON HOSPITALAND LIKE BEDS 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Jan. 4, 1966 INVENTOR IvaR A.THoMPsoN ATTORWY HOSPITAL AND LIKE BEDS Filed Jan. 4, 1966 5 Sheecs$heet3 INVE NTOR lvoR A THoMPsoN.

ATTORNEYS Jan. 31, 1967 1. A. THOMPSON HOSPITAL AND LIKE BEDS 5SheetsSheet 4 Filed Jan. 4, 1966 INVENTOR IvoR A. THOMPSON A TTOR'NE Y8Jan. 31, 1967 I. A. THOMPSON 3,300,793

HOSPITAL AND LIKE BEDS Filed Jan. 4, 1966 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 49 w 9 76a 4644 l INVENTOR IV R A- THOMPSQN A TTOR/VEYS United States Patent3,300,793 HOSPITAL AND LIKE BEDS Ivor A. Thompson, Petts Wood, England,assignor to A. C. Egerton Engineering (Brornley) Limited, Kent, England,a British company Filed Jan. 4, 1966, Ser. No. 518,569 Claims priority,application Great Britain, Jan. 4, 1965, 302/65; Dec. 17, 1965,53,681/65 10 Claims. (Cl. -61) This invention relates to hospital andlike beds.

Difficulty has been experienced in turning paralysed or surgicalpatients who have to be turned relatively frequently, say every fourhours. Particular difliculty has been found in turning patientssuffering from spine or similar injuries where the torso must always besupported during any movement and whose bodies must remain in the samepositions to prevent further injury. With this latter type of patient ithas been found necessary to employ six persons for about twenty minutesto turn the patient from his back to his right or left side.

The present invention seeks to overcome this problem by providing a bed,the parts of which can be moved so as to cause the patient to be turnedwhile maintaining support for the spine throughout.

According to the invention there is provided a hospital or like bedcomprising a bed frame, a supporting structure carried by the bed frameand adapted to support a mattress or like article, the supportingstructure being divided in a median longitudinal region into twonormally co-planar parts at least one of which is hingedly mounted so asto be movable relatively to the other, the hinge arrangement beingoff-set from the longitudinal center line .of the sup-- portingstructure, the arrangement being such that a person lying in the centerof the bed can be turned on his side by movement of one of the partswhile his spine is supported at all times.

Preferably both parts of the structure are movable whereby the saidperson can be turned on either side by moving the appropriate part. Thetwo parts of the supporting structure may be so constructed that whencoplanar, each has portions extending transversely of the length of thebed into the other. Power operated actuating means may be provided formoving the parts of the supporting structure.

The invention also includes the provision of a traction device speciallyadapted for use with the bed.

One embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of examplewith reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a plan view of a hospital or like bed in accordance with theinvention;

FIGURE 2 is a side view of the bed of FIGURE 1 showing the tiltingmechanism of the bed;

FIGURE 3 is an end view of the bed of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 4 is an end view similar to FIGURE 3 but showing one part of thesupporting structure in its raised position;

FIGURE 5 is a perspective view of the head traction unit for the bed;and

FIGURE 6 is an end view of the bed similar to FIG- URE 3 but showing thehead traction unit in position on the bed and taken from the oppositeend of the bed.

Referring to FIGURES 1 to 4 of the drawings, a hospital orthopedic orlike bed comprises a bed frame 1 of tubular construction mounted on fourcastors 2. The bed frame 1 carries a supporting structure 3 mounted on asub frame 4 which sub frame is pivoted to the frame proper at 5 for apurpose to be described.

The supporting structure 3 is divided along the median region of the bedinto two parts 6 and 7, the center part of the structure being formed byalternate projecting portions 8 and 9 projecting respectively from thepart 6 and the part 7. The two parts 6 and 7, are hingedly connected tothe frame 4 by members 11 and 12 positioned at each end of the structure3 and which are pivoted at 14 and 15 to upstanding portions 16 and 16aof the sub frame 4. In this way the hinge arrangement is offset.

Each of the two parts 6 and 7 are movable to take up positions as shownwith regard to the part 6 in FIGURE 4. For this purpose two electricmotors 17 and 18 are provided, which drive screw jacks 19 and 20. Thejacks 19 and 20 act on members 21, 21a, 22, 22a to raise the appropriatepart 6 or 7. In order to take up the twisting movement on the motors,the motors are each pivotally mounted in a frame 23. Operation of themotors is controlled by means of control boxes 24 and 25 which are oneach side of the bed frame 1.

The supporting structure 3 supports a mattress 26 as shown in chainlines in FIGURES 2 to 4. Rails 27 are provided on the structure forretaining it when one of the parts 6 or 7 is raised.

The supporting structure 3 is as previously mentioned, pivoted to theframe 1 at 5 to permit longitudinal tilting.

Tilting of the bed is controlled manually by means of a removable handle(shown chain dotted at 29 in FIG- URE 2) insertable at either side ofthe bed. This operates a threaded rod (not shown) threaded oppositely ateach end. This rod is engaged by nuts carried by arms 30 and 31 pivotedat their other ends to the bed frame 1. The arrangement is such thatturning the threaded rod will bring together or move apart the nuts thuscausing the arms 30 and 31 to move about their fixed pivots and raise orlower the appropriate end of the supporting structure 3 in relation tothe bed frame 1. One tilted position of the structure 3 is indicated inchain dotted lines in FIGURE 2. It will be seen that in this way thetilting mechanism is entirely independent of the operation of theraising etc. of the parts 6 and 7 of the supporting structure 3.

Detachable bed ends are provided, one of which is shown at 33.

In order to ensure that the raising and lowering of the parts 6 and 7 ofthe supporting structure may be carried out even in the event of a powerfailure, manually operable knobs 34 and 35 are provided on the shafts ofthe motors 17 and 18.

FIGURES 5 and 6 show a traction device specially adapted for use withthe bed. In these figures, a head traction unit is shown.

Referring to FIGURES 5 and 6, the head traction unit comprises a frame41, and a base portion 42 in the form of a tray having side members 43.The tray is open at its end away from the frame 41 and has a narrowportion 44 in which the frame 41 is mounted. The frame is provided withan adjustable post 45 adjustable for height by means of a knurled knob46 and is provided with a pulley 47 at its upper extremity over whichpasses a cord 48. The cord 48 is attached by means of the usual headcaliper to the patients head (not shown).

Two supports 49 are provided in sockets 50 on either side of the baseportion 42 and these supports 49 carry arms 51 which in turn carry headsupporting pads 52. The pads 52 are adjustable by means of adjustingmecha- 'replace the electric motors.

nisms 53 and 54 on the arms 51 and each arm itself is adjustable on thesupports 49 by means of mechanisms 55. At the lower part of the frame41, at the rear thereof, is provided a cord retaining member 56 in theform of a coiled wire. The weight carrier 57 is attached to the end ofthe cord 48 so as to provide the traction tension.

The traction device is located on a bed by means of the mattress 26divided into three longitudinal sections 59, 60 and 61, as shown inFIGURE 5. The construction is such that the three sections of themattress are joined at their upper portions only and the center portion60 of the mattress is seated in the base member 42.

7 described:

The person lying on the bed is attached by the traction caliper to thecord 48 and with his head clamped in the head supporting pads 52.Raising of one part 6 or 7 of the bed wiil cause the patient to turn onto his side. As the base 42 of the device is located purely by means ofthe mattress, the device will turn with the side being raised and willslide relative to the non-raised side where necessary.

To prevent diificulties arising due to engagement of the support sockets50 with the bed frame, these are chamfered at 45 as shown. Without thischamfer proper sliding movement of the device on the non-raised side ofthe bed is prevented.

When the patient has been turned on his side, it may be desirable tolower the raised side of the bed while retaining the patient on hisside. If the cord 48 was allowed to remain on the device, the cord wouldreturn with the device to its original position. To avoid this the cordmay be transferred to the cord post 62 by detaching the cord from thecord retaining member 56 and lifting the cord off the pulley into thefork 65. It is of course also necessary to remove the pads 52 and theirsupports 49 and 51.

When it is desired to return the patient to his original position, theappropriate part 6 or 7 of the bed is raised and the cord 48 transferredback from the fork 65 to the pulley 47.

Various modifications can be made to the above described bed withoutdeparting from the scope of the invention. For example hydraulicoperating means may The mattress may be constructed from a number ofseparate removable parts to permit access to a patient for X-ray,surgical and other purposes. Where it is undesirable to remove sectionsof the mattress or where it is desired to take X-ray photographs throughthe supporting structure, the appropriate parts of the structure may bemade from plastics or other X-ray permeable material.

In an alternative construction, the projections 8 and 9 can be omitted,the gap between the parts 6 and 7 being covered by a flexible member. Inthis case a specially constructed mattress may be used consisting forexample, of a plurality of longitudinal sections to provide adequatespinal support, for example being in the median region made up of aseries of longitudinal cushions hinged together by a common overlay.

Modifications may also be made to the need traction -unit. For example,the weight carrier 17 may be replaced by a spring balance, the springthus providing the tension instead of the weights.

4 It will be understood that although the unit has been described as ahead traction device it can equally well be used for other tractionpurposes such as leg traction or arm traction. In this case, of course,the pads 52 may be dispensed with.

I claim:

1. A hospital bed comprising:

a bed frame;

a supporting structure carried by said bed frame and adapted to supporta. mattress;

the supporting structure being divided in a median longitudinal regioninto two normally co-planar parts which are so constructed that, whenthey are coplanar, each has portions extending transversely of thelength of the bed into the other;

said extending portions crossing the center line of said supportingstructure, and being in said median region;

the extending portions being hingedly mounted so as to be movablerelatively to one another; and

hinge means offset from the longitudinal center line of the supportingstructure, for enabling said two parts to be movable relative to eachother, the arrangement being such that a person lying in the center ofthe bed can be turned on his side by movement of one of the parts whilehis spine is supported at all times.

2. A bed as defined in claim 1, and:

power means for movement of said hinged parts.

3. A bed as defined in claim 1, and:

a screw jack connected with each of said hinged parts; and an electricmotor for operating said screw jack.

4. A bed as defined in claim 3, and:

manual means for actuating said screw jack.

5. A bed as defined in claim 3, and:

a knob or handle on the motor shaft whereby the motor shaft can beturned by hand in the event of a power failure.

6. A bed as defined in claim 3, and:

means for tilting the supporting structure as a whole relative to saidbed frame on a transverse axis.

7. A bed as defined in claim 3, and:

a mattress on said supporting structure, the mattress including outersurfaces and being split longitudinally into outer parts and a middlepart joined at the surface of the mattress remote from said supportingstructure, the middle portion of the mattress correspondingsubstantially to said median region.

8. A bed as defined in claim 7, and:

a traction unit supported on said median region of said supportingstructure and being supported thereon in such manner that it will movewith any of said hinged parts of said supporting structure, so as tomaintain traction on the person in the bed while being turned.

9. A bed as defined in claim 8, wherein:

the traction unit is provided with a base member in the form of anopen-ended tray in which said middle portion of said mattress rests, thetraction unit being located thereby.

10. A bed as defined in claim 9, wherein:

the traction unit further comprises a frame having a a base portion onthe frame for supporting the device on the bed;

a traction cord;

means for applying traction tension to said cord;

a cord guide on the top of said frame for changing the direction of pullof said cord from the horizontal necessitated by the horizontal positionof the person under traction, to a direction suitable for attach ment totension applying means; and

means for adjusting the height of said cord guide.

(References on following page) 5 6 References Cited by the Examiner3,200,416 8/ 1965 Warrick 5-62 3,210,778 10/1965 Robinson 561 UNITEDSTATES PATENTS 3,231,904 2/1966 Schu1kin 5-62 9/1950 Blackman 5-61 3,2339 3/1 KO h 5-61 4/1957 Travisano 269328 5 953 Cobb 128 84'4 FRANK B.SHERRY, Przmary Exnmmer. 6/1965 Boetcker et a1. 269328 CASMIR A.NUNBERG, Examiner.

1. A HOSPITAL BED COMPRISING: A BED FRAME; A SUPPORTING STRUCTURECARRIED BY SAID BED FRAME AND ADAPTED TO SUPPORT A MATTRESS; THESUPPORTING STRUCTURE BEING DIVIDED IN A MEDIAN LONGITUDINAL REGION INTOTWO NORMALLY CO-PLANAR PARTS WHICH ARE SO CONSTRUCTED THAT, WHEN THEYARE COPLANAR, EACH HAS PORTIONS EXTENDING TRANSVERSELY OF THE LENGTH OFTHE BED INTO THE OTHER; SAID EXTENDING PORTIONS CROSSING THE CENTER LINEOF SAID SUPPORTING STRUCTURE, AND BEING IN SAID MEDIAN REGION; THEEXTENDING PORTIONS BEING HINGEDLY MOUNTED SO AS TO BE MOVABLE RELATIVELYTO ONE ANOTHER; AND HINGE MEANS OFFSET FROM THE LONGITUDINAL CENTER LINEOF THE SUPPORTING STRUCTURE, FOR ENABLING SAID TWO PARTS TO BE MOVABLERELATIVE TO EACH OTHER, THE ARRANGEMENT BEING SUCH THAT A PERSON LYINGIN THE CENTER OF THE BED CAN BE TURNED ON HIS SIDE BY MOVEMENT OF ONE OFTHE PARTS WHILE HIS SPINE IS SUPPORTED AT ALL TIMES.